Non-compliance with building regulations must be dealt with strictly

Rice mill magnate Dudley Sirisena who recently addressed the Annual General Meeting of the Business Traders Association Hingurakgoda used the event to reply to recent claims by Agriculture Minister K.D. Lal Kantha that Sirisena’s hotel was built on a reservation area of the Parakarama Samudraya in Polonnaruwa and that the outer wall of the hotel should be demolished. 

Sirisena’s answer to his critics was to admit that his hotel has in fact encroached on the reservation area while announcing plans to demolish the entire building and put a new hotel in the same place.

It is common knowledge that Sirisena is not the exception but the rule where encroachments in Sri Lanka is concerned. While hoteliers and other big businesses often flaunt rules offering inducements to authorities concerned to have their plans approved, members of the public too are often guilty of encroaching on street lines and road reservations, embankments, etc.

This is more pronounced in cities where people put up walls encroaching in areas which have been marked for road expansions. The high walls, far above the stipulated heights are in themselves a danger and there have been several incidents where such walls have collapsed resulting in deaths and injuries. Such encroachments are a danger and nuisance to both pedestrians and motorists.

The problem has always been corruption and inefficiency in the enforcement of rules in Sri Lanka. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) in the past has faced allegations over flaunting rules when approving plans even when they are in violation of local council laws. Some property developers have gone beyond the approved number of floors thus causing headaches for residents of these areas by blocking light and ventilation.

In the suburbs too, the local by-laws on construction are freely violated. Not only commercial buildings, but even residential buildings fault laws by encroaching on road reservations, blocking drains, etc. Blind walls are built in an illegal manner when the rules stipulate that there should be adequate space between buildings for light and ventilation.

When the authorities try to intervene with demolition notices, the results are long drawn out court cases which cost both time and money and most Government institutions are in no way equipped to deal with such situations.

There are adequate laws in the country under the Urban Development Authority, Land Development Corporation, Housing and Town Improvement Ordinance, Condominium Authority Act, etc. to deal with those who break the laws but what has been lacking is the interest in dealing with these problems. There is also this serious issue of corruption that has crept into the systems with permits issued, not according to the law, but according to the financial inducements on offer. With the Government’s anti-corruption crackdown, there is hope rampant corruption in the sector will decline.

With the rapid speed of urbanisation, Sri Lanka needs better town planning so that there is uniformity in the way buildings are constructed. At present everyone is a law unto themselves, building at will, with no consideration for the environment or the infrastructure facilities that may be affected due to poor construction.

The Government needs to be firm when dealing with the issue of haphazard construction and have firm regulations so that at least in the future those neighbourhoods will be more pleasant places to live in and not be just urban jungles with ugly structures built with no compliance for the rules.